European Commission considering obligatory reduction in SMS roaming charges

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The European Commission is investigating whether or not a cap should be set on the prices of SMS messages sent while abroad. The new tariffs would be applied next year at the earliest.
      Behind the current debate is the decision to set a price cap on all outgoing and incoming mobile phone calls within the European Union. The decision has reduced mobile phone charges by 50 per cent.
     
The European Commission is now urging teleoperators to send an SMS to their roaming subscribers entering another EU country, concerning the tariffs levied within a "visited" network.
      The Finnish teleoperator Elisa has recently introduced its new message service, while the rival operator Sonera will launch its service later this year.
      As requested, the Finnish operators have reduced their fees for roaming mobile phone calls made by tourists while aboad.
      However, no additional reductions have been granted. The new prices that were announced at the end of the summer were almost always the highest fees permitted by the European Commission.
     
The situation is the same in most EU member states, even though roaming charges vary considerably in the EU area, depending on where the caller and the recipient are located, and on what operator is chosen.
      According to Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, the reduction in prices is nevertheless a victory, as a total of 400 million EU citizens benefit from the fall in mobile phone roaming charges.
      In the course of three months, the telephone bills for EU citizens travellig to other member states have been reduced by 60 per cent, Reding reports.
     
Based on a report compiled by the European Commission, the cheapest roaming fees are offered by the Dutch teleoperator Amatus. The fee offered by Amatus is 20 cents (excluding VAT) for both outgoing and incoming mobile phone calls.
      The Finnish operators charge almost without exception the maximum fee. Including the VAT it is about 60 cents for outgoing mobile phone calls and some 30 cents for incoming calls.
      The report indicates that only DNA is offering a cheaper alternative: 45.15 cents per minute for calls made from one EU member state to another.
     
Next year, the new price caps for roaming mobile phone calls will be 43 and 19 cents.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish travellers to benefit from planned EU end to mobile phone roaming charges (29.3.2006)

Links:
  European Parliament Press Release: Mobile roaming: EP committee votes for € 0.40 cap on calls made while abroad (12.4.2007)

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